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Investing in preschool software for your center can help you enhance the overall quality of your center while streamlining your operations, boosting staff productivity, and improving parent communication. But with a plethora of options out there in the market, it’s important to consider a few factors in order to decide the one that would be the right fit for your business and to ensure you are getting the value for your money.
Whether you are planning to deploy new software or replace a current one, here are a few things you should consider before you make your decision.
1. Features
The range of features the platform offers you is important. If you are investing your money in software, you should seek to make the best out of it. The more a childcare platform offers you, the more your options are to experiment with it and bring a difference to your center. Why settle for less, when the same amount of money can bring much more to your table?
Illumine offers you a wide range of features to help you take your center to the next level. From payments and invoicing, parent communication, contactless attendance, lesson planning, to assessments and virtual classrooms – we’ve got you covered to boost up operations in almost every aspect at your center.
2. Customer service
It’s crucial to do your research and find out about the kind of customer support provided by the company before you make the final decision. Since the childcare management software deployed at the school will be in use most days of the week, and by different groups of people, a strong line of support that is available to you when you need it becomes non-negotiable. A good support team can help you navigate through the software easily, and can solve any technical difficulties you’re facing in no time. Without that, you might be losing a lot of time trying to figure out things on your own, and processes at your center might come to a halt as well.
Illumine offers 24×7 customer support to its customers. You can reach them via any medium you prefer and we will respond back in no time. Above that, we also work towards solving any problem you’re facing within the bracket of 24 hours, ensuring that the operations at your center are never disrupted.
3. Reviews
What better way to understand the pros and cons of software than to research the kind of reviews it has been getting from its existing set of customers. Reviews are honest, non-biased, and can completely be relied upon. They not only help you understand the functioning of the software better but also help you weigh out your options and compare them. Platforms such as Capterra, G2, and Software Advice, are just some of the examples of review websites that offer insights into what customers are saying about a particular software.
Illumine has received over 1000+ five-star reviews from its customers. To top that, it has also been awarded the Category Leader award by GetApp, the Customer’s Choice award by Software Suggest, the Top Rated award by Software World, and the High Performer award by G2. Do we need to say more?
4. Multi-center Management
Whether you are a small venture or a large enterprise, there’s always a possibility of scaling your business. So in the case of smaller businesses, going with a childcare management platform that supports multi-center management can come in handy when needed. And in the case of a large business, it is not just suggested but also recommended. It can make your life incredibly easier by letting you monitor operations across all your branches from a single device. With all your processes being centralized, the efficiency at your center will increase drastically, and will also give you the peace of mind you deserve.
Illumine is one of the top enterprise-level platforms that meet the needs of large child care businesses. From a scalable cloud-based architecture, pilot programs for enterprises, to a centralized dashboard – we provide you with everything you need to seamlessly manage all your centers.
5. Platforms supported
It is important to look at the platforms the childcare software you’re going for supports. Since the software will be used both by your staff and parents, the software supporting all platforms including Android, iOs, and Windows can be proven useful. It is a good idea to keep that option open since the users can come from a background of different platforms and it would reduce any complications in the future.
Illumine is supported by all the platforms – Android, iOs, and Windows. It makes our platform highly versatile and ensures the users face no problem installing and using the software – regardless of the device they use.
6. Ease of use
The next thing you need to look at is how user-friendly the childcare management platform is. The simpler it is to use, the less time you and your staff will be spending on it. Secondly, if the software has a simple interface, parents won’t find it hard to navigate through the app as well. This can save you a lot of time and unnecessary headaches. On the other hand, a good interface can also enhance the user experience.
Illumine was designed keeping its kinds of users and intuitiveness in mind. Once you run through the app, it is easy to understand how to use it for various purposes. All the features are clearly demarcated on the menu to make it easily accessible for you, so neither you nor your staff or parents face trouble in using the app.
7. Value for money
When deciding on a pricing point, start with a basic budget and then decide on your “must-have” features within that very budget. Then develop a “good to have” and “should not need” feature list. This will assist you in better comprehending the worth of software to your company.
When looking into products at the lower end of your budget, make sure you are aware of software that can’t grow with you and your business. Also consider what your company’s demands will be in five or ten years, and how software expenses will rise as the number of users, processes, or goods grows.
Illumine offers you three different packages according to your business needs – standard, business, and enterprise. These packages are tailored to the requirements of the size of a childcare facility. We also offer custom-pricing packages with discounts for large and multi-center schools.
8. Security
Taking into consideration how secure your data is with a particular product in question is highly crucial. Data collection, security, storage, and sharing are all important aspects of any software. Check out the security page for any software you’re thinking about buying. Always read the privacy policies of any product you’re thinking about buying. This should cover everything you need to know about collecting, storing, and using data.
At Illumine, your privacy is highly important to us. As part of Portal, Illumine offers an authorization system that allows you to control who can view and access what data. No parent has access to the data of other parents in the system.
Illumine’s database service limits access to only those employees who need access to the information. When an employee accesses a system, the database service logs it. Employees who login in with Google Sign-In and 2-factor authentication can only access data stored in the Illumine database service.
9. Language translation support
Language translation support helps you localize your content and makes it more personalized for you. That way, your customers can relate better to you and you have an advantage over your competitors in that regard. It could also come in handy if you plan on expanding your business across borders and need to reach out to people belonging to different linguistic backgrounds.
At Illumine, we get the translation job for you in no time. Whatever language it might be, we will make sure that the content is appropriately translated for you. Our team works with steady determination to deliver the content in your preferred language in just a matter of a few days.
10. Training support
Getting your staff acquainted with the chosen childcare management software is perhaps the first step in ensuring that the platform brings about more efficiency and seamlessness in your operations. In order to achieve that, you need training support from the given company. Without a team that provides meticulous training to your team, you might find your staff and even yourself struggling to understand and use the product.
At Illumine, our team provides you with training support during onboarding to ensure you have a smooth experience with our product. In addition to that, we also have elaborate resources should you face any difficulty at all.
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